English Recordings

1. What do you like to do in your free time?

2. What will you eat for dinner tonight?

3. Where do you buy fruits and vegetables?

4. Where is the best place to visit in winter?

5. Who was your favorite teacher in school?

6. Who is the most popular singer in your country?

7. When was your last vacation? (My last vacation was in ~ .)

8. When do you prefer to study, in the morning or in the evening?

9. Why are you sleeping so late?

10. Why are you walking to your school?

Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island. We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines. Life there is simple and good. Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. The other side of the picture is quite the opposite. Life on a desert island is wretched. You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe， Waiting for a boat which never comes. Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures， but few us have had the opportunity to find out.
Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer. They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. During the journey， their boat began to sink. They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food， matches， and cans of beer and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island. There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water， but this did not prove to be a problem. The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought a spear gun with them， they had plenty to eat. They caught lobster and fish every day，and， as one of them put it 'ate like kings'. When a passing tanker rescued them five days later， both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.

Customs Officers are quite tolerant these days， but they can still stop you when you are going through the Green Channel and have nothing to declare. Even really honest people are often made to feel guilty. The hardened professional smuggler， on the other hand， is never troubled by such feelings， even if he has five hundred gold watches hidden in his suitcase. When I returned form abroad recently， a particularly officious young Customs Officer clearly regarded me as a smuggler.
'Have you anything to declare？' he asked， looking me in the eye.
'No'， I answered confidently.
'Would you mind unlocking this suitcase please？'
'Not at all，' I answered.
The Officer went through the case with great care. All the thing I had packed so carefully were soon in a dreadful mess. I felt sure I would never be able to close the case again. Suddenly， I saw the Officer's face light up. He had spotted a tiny bottle at the bottom of my case and he pounced on it with delight.
'Perfume， eh？' he asked sarcastically. 'You should have declared that. Perfume is not exempt from import duty.'
'But it isn't perfume，' I said. 'It's hair gel.' Then I added with a smile， 'It's a strange mixture I make myself.
' As I expected， he did not believe me.
'Try it！' I said encouragingly.
The officer unscrewed the cap and put the bottle to his nostrils. He was greeted by an unpleasant smell which convinced him that I was telling the truth. A few minutes later， I was able to hurry away with precious chalk marks on my baggage.

The whole village soon learnt that a large sum of money had been lost. Sam Benton, the local butcher, had lost his wallet while taking his savings to the post-office. Sam was sure that the wallet must have been found by one of the villagers, but it was not returned to him. Three months passed, and then one morning, Sam found his wallet outside his front door. It had been wrapped up in newspaper and it contained half the money he had lost, together with a note which said: 'A thief, yes, 'but only 5o per cent a thief!' Two months later, some more money was sent to Sam with another note:' Only 25 per cent a thief now!' In time, all Sam's money was paid back in this way. The last note said:' I am 100 per cent honest now!'

Mrs Anne Sterling did not think of the risk she was taking when she ran through a forest after two men. They had rushed up to her while she was having a picnic at the edge of a forest with her children and tried to steal her handbag. In the struggle, the strap broke and, with the bag in their possession, both men started running through the trees. Mrs Sterling got so angry that she ran after them. She was soon out of breath, but she continued to run. When she caught up with them, she saw that they had sat down and were going through the contents of the bag, so she ran straight at them. The men got such a fright that they dropped the bag and ran away. 'The strap needs mending,' said Mrs Sterling later, 'but they did not steal anything.'

(Jan 26th 2012)
• Last Thursday night,I went to watch a movie "The Phantom of the Opera ".
• It`s said that this movie is the 25th anniversary performance.
• Last Thursday evening, when I was on my way home, I called one of my friends and just to say "hi."
• Then she asked me 'Why don`t you watch "The Phantom of the Opera" tonight?" At that TIME I hesitated FOR a moment, but soon we decided to watch it together.
• In fact I watched this opera in a New York Broadway theater long time ago by myself, even though I forgot when it was。
• But one thingI can remember is it was really great and amazing.。
• AT that time my English WAS so poor so I couldn`t enjoy it as much。
• And I just watched that tremendous stage with the amazing music.
• But it was good enough and it touched me.（But it was good enough to touch me.）
• So I thought if I watch it AS a movie it will also be very good.
• The show times for that movie were 8:10 pm to 11.18pm.
• But I couldn`t let my family know it because my phone battery died.
• And moreover my friend didn`t bring her phone.
• So I just borrowed a cell phone from another person and sent a text to my husband.
• The following link is a trailer for "The Phantom of the Opera ". There are Korean subtitles, and today`s picture (/the picture of today) is my ticket and movie posters.

bugle
bulk
cherubic
chill
butch
choke
chuckle
circuit
clamour
cleft
to clinch
candour
to despair
to buckle up
yeast
cavity
chagrin
chapel
the Leaning Tower of Pisa
burglary
charged
cheerful
to cloister oneself
tangle
to drip
to scoop up
to tweak
derisively
burrow
cloth
coalesce
coarse
coherent
exquisite
to trot
point-blank
What a lark!
craze for
to bog down
butcher
cabbage tree
bubbling up
to budge
retard
to thread
cardinal
carouse
cast
callousness

The great ship， Titanic， sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th， 1912. She was carrying 1，316 passengers and crew of 891. Even by modern standards， the 46，000 ton Titanic was a colossal ship. At the time， however， she was not only the largest ship that had ever been built， but was regarded as unsinkable， for she had sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these were flooded， she would still be able to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner will always be remembered， for she went down on her first voyage with heavy loss of life.
Four days after setting out， while the Titanic was sailing across the icy water of the North Atlantic， huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a lookout. After the alarm had been given， the great ship turned sharply to avoid a direct collision. The Titanic turned just in time， narrowly missing the immense walk of ice which rose over 100 feet out of the water beside her. Suddenly， there was a slight trembling sound from below， and the captain went down to see what had happened. The noise had been so faint that no one though that the ship had been damaged. Below， the captain realized to his horror that the Titanic was sinking rapidly， for five of her sixteen watertight compartments had already been flooded！ The order to abandon ship was given and hundreds of people plunged into the icy water. As there were not enough lifeboats for everybody， 1，500 lives were lost.

In 1929, three years after his flight over the North Pole, the American explorer, R. E. Byrd, successfully flew over the South Pole for the first time. Though, at first, Byrd and his men were able to take a great many photographs of the mountains that lay below, they soon ran into serious trouble. At one point, it seemed certain that their plane would crash. It could only get over the mountains if it rose to 10,000 feet. Byrd at once ordered his men to throw out two heavy food sacks. The plane was then able to rise and it cleared the mountains by 400 feet. Byrd now knew that he would be able to reach the South Pole which was 300 miles away, for there were no more mountains in sight. The aircraft was able to fly over the endless white plains without difficulty.

As we had had a long walk through one of the markets of Old Delhi, we stopped at a square to have a rest. After a time, we noticed a snake-charmer with two large baskets at the other side of the square, so we went to have a look at him. As soon as he saw us, he picked up a long pipe which was covered with coins and opened one of the baskets. When he began to play a tune, we had our first glimpse of the snake. It rose out of the basket and began to follow the movements of the pipe. We were very much surprised when the snake charmer suddenly began to play jazz tunes and modern pop songs. The snake, however, continued to 'dance' slowly. It obviously could not tell the difference between Indian music and jazz!